Since 2000, we've appeared before all the committees of the federal government, including the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, PSHRMAC, which is now called the Canada Public Service Agency. We also met Ms. Turmel, who was at the union at the time. We constantly tossed the ball back and forth. They said they were ready to reclassify us, if PSHRMAC agreed. The agency said it agreed, provided the union agreed.
When Mr. Gordon became our union president, they examined our situation and agreed to meet with us. They finally admitted that there was really a serious classification problem. As people don't want to work in compensation, there is a serious staff shortage. People aren't being paid on time. People who work in compensation do a lot of overtime and are making themselves sick.
That has a major impact on the income taxes of those employees. When a person is a year behind in paying provincial income tax and has only paid federal tax, that has a significant impact at the end of the year. As regards promotion, that person should have had it in 2005. It's now 2007, and she hasn't yet received her cheque. When she does receive her cheque, that will have a significant impact on the tax that she will have to pay.
Until they review classification, there will still be a problem. People don't want to stay in compensation. The work is too complex. At the moment, they're talking about taking duties away from us and sending certain files, such as pensions, to Moncton. That will resolve nothing. We're the ones who have employees' files. They'll still phone us. We'll have to confirm information, search the files and so on. People don't want to be served by a 1-800 number. When I retire, I'm going to call Moncton, and they're going to fax me documents so that I can complete them.
There are a number of us compensation advisors, and we meet with people in the associations and committees. When they know that we are compensation advisors, they tell us they work at Public Works and have no one to turn to. One person previously asked me to help her; she's changed her retirement date three times. Another person told me that documents had been sent to her by mail and that she did not know how to complete them. She told me that she would pay me if I helped her do it.
That's terrible; it's unheard of. They have to review our classification. If they refuse to do so, nothing will change, even if they hire people from the outside.